Pioneer develops 500GB Blu-ray compatible disc

Just last month, we reported that Pioneer had developed a 400GB Blu-ray compatible disc. Today however, they have one-upped their previous announcement by announcing they have developed a 500GB disc that can be read by blue lasers and is technically compatible with Blu-ray.

The disc uses 20 layers at 25GB a piece to equal 500GB and has the capacity to store 10 times the amount of 1080p footage that current BD movies have.

"While Blu-ray discs (BD), offering both 25GB and 50GB, are sufficient for users' current demands, we envision the need for a technology that can support far greater capacities as HDstreaming in particular becomes commonplace and users build larger files of digital content,"said Pioneer multimedia division product manager Brendan Sheridan. "The multi-layered method is compatible with Blu-ray devices providing a long term future for the technology and is more easily produced when compared to competing technologies such as holographic storage."

Sheridan does note that the disc is only a research project prototype right now but that the company is in talks with the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) to formalize the standard.

When will the public see this disc? Two to four years, expects Sheridan.

Indeed, I still have disgruntling memories of paying obscene (by today's standard) prices for DVD-R media when it was new, and CD-R well before that, and the prices were ridiculous because it was new, now today the cost is pocket change particularly when bought in bulk (DVD-R DL's still need to come down, A LOT).

BD-R's are completely insane right now, but that's because the proliferation and competition simply doesn't exist yet, but it will come in time just as every media before it, and soon enough (i.e. the next 2-3 years) media speeds will climb, production will skyrocket, and prices will fall sharply to a fraction of what they are now. Moore is still getting it right all these years later :D

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 08 Aug 2008 @ 18:10

Quote: When will the public see this disc? Two to four years, expects Sheridan.

That's if BR is still around by then. Good to see that they are improving capacity. Does this mean prices for the lesser capacity will go down?

blue ray will exist it won the format war and do you think studios will abandon 100million ps3s in peoples homes the market is opening up for blue ray tv adds a few years ago used to be "available in vhs and dvd"then it turned around to "dvd and vhs" today im hearing adds "available in dvd and blue ray from monday"

Quote: When will the public see this disc? Two to four years, expects Sheridan.

That's if BR is still around by then. Good to see that they are improving capacity. Does this mean prices for the lesser capacity will go down?

blue ray will exist it won the format war and do you think studios will abandon 100million ps3s in peoples homes the market is opening up for blue ray tv adds a few years ago used to be "available in vhs and dvd"then it turned around to "dvd and vhs" today im hearing adds "available in dvd and blue ray from monday"

blue ray is well on its way get over it

It's not about abandoning our PS3's, which I own one. It's about whether the general public is going to pay $30 per movie to replace their DVD library. Blu-Ray didn't win the format war. The opposition just sold out. Finally, do you know what a run-on sentence is?

It's a shame Big Interests are blocking mass production of affordable recordable high capacity media. I would really like to back up gigs of personal data like home movies and pictures on a single disc. The fears of piracy keep it from happening...